Nerd Tips: Test the Size of USB & SSD - Don't Be Scammed

[Rev.Cambeul]

With modern USB thumb drives and Solid State Drives (SSD's) replacing the old mechanical hard drives, it's easy to be ripped off these days. Chinks and Indians are hacking the drives so that 500 Megabyte drives read as 1, 2 and even 4 Terabytes.

For those that don't know, think of a Byte as 1. A Kilobyte is a thousand Bytes. A Megabyte is a thousand Kilobytes. A Gigabyte is a thousand Megabytes. A Terabyte is a thousand Gigabytes. So, a 4 Terabyte disk drive that is only actually only 500MB is a considerable RIPOFF!


This is the Method Used
USB: 500MB masquerading as 500GB, 1TB, 2TB

SSD: 500GB masquerading as 1TB, 2TB, 4TB


How Do You Know if You've Been Ripped Off?
When you attempt to set up your new thumb drive as NTFS, it'll fail. When you attempt to use your NTFS SSD, the moment you cross that size limitation, it will fail and you will lose files as it copies new files over the old.


How to Solve the Problem
Set your drive up as something smaller. Example: A 4TB SSD becomes a 500GB SSD. You use software to delete all partitions and create new ones at a smaller size. In Windows, it's called Computer Management. Choose Disk Management. Find your 4TB drive in the list, delete all partitions, create a new partition that is 500GB in size, format as NTSF ... and use it however you want.


How to Find the Actual Size of Your New Drive
Download a specialised program/app, and use that program to check it for you. If your new drive is smaller than advertised, then get your money back from those scamming Gooks or Dot-Headed Paki bastards.

11 Freeware To Detect Fake USB Flash Drives, SD Cards And SSD Disk
https://www.geckoandfly.com/22803/detect-fake-usb-flash-drives-sd-cards-ssd-disk

ChipGenius

I use three from that list in the following order:

1. ChipGenius reads the onboard chip - Takes seconds and doesn't damage your files
https://chipgenius.en.softonic.com

2. FakeFlashTest writes segments to the drive - Takes a minute but will damage your files
https://rmprepusb.com/tutorials/007-all-about-fake-sd-cards-and-usb-flash-drives

3. H2testw writes to the drive - Takes hours but will give you everything you need to get your money back
https://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Miscellaneous/H2testw.shtml


I have tested the above with USB, but not yet with an SSD. If the three I use are not good enough for you, then check out that list of 11 Freeware To Detect Fake USB Flash Drives, SD Cards And SSD Disks and get back to us with your update.

Warning! While Aliexpress is infamous for these scams, Amazon and eBay are also full of scamming Gooks and Dot-Heads ... so buyer beware!

@Cailen.

YouTube Search: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Fake+SSD+from+AliExpress

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q8SiZcllFA

As Used in the Video

AxoFlashTest - Restore Factory Size
https://flashtest.alexkho.ru/AxoFlashTest.zip

CrystalDiskMark
https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskmark

[Rev.FrankSmith]

Noted